Dee2rites Blog

Tag: faith

  • The Happiest Time of the Year?

    “Why are you cast down, O my soul? And why are you disquieted within me? Hope in God; For I shall yet praise Him, The help of my countenance and my God.”  Psalm 42:11

    For many people, the holidays are a time of celebration, parties, and happy family gatherings. But for some, that is not always true. Empty chairs are a reminder of loved ones who are not here this year. Memories of sad times are more poignant and a reminder of past loses and failures. Deployed family members are missed more sharply during Christmas celebrations. So how do we cope? Those who are Christians, often experience guilt over not being happy during the season we celebrate the birth of our Lord, adding to our feelings of loneliness, sadness and depression.

              Temporary holiday blues can be due to unrealistic expectations, overplanning, and overspending which adds to stress. These are things which can be corrected by less shopping, and keeping expectations of a good holiday more realistic.

              But what about those who are experiencing real hurt, who are missing loved ones or who suffer from S.A.D. (Seasonal affective disorder, a type of depression that occurs usually during fall or winter.) These feelings are real and cannot just be dismissed.

              Here are just a few things that God has shown me over the years.

    1. Celebrate the life of your loved one who has passed. Enjoy the memories you have of them, and remind yourself, that if they were believers in Jesus Christ, they are celebrating in heaven.
    2. Give yourself permission to cry and call out to God, being honest with your Heavenly Father. Many of the Psalms of David were him calling out to God, reminding himself to praise Him even when times were bad.
    3. Take care of yourself physically. Get plenty of rest, go for walks or do other exercise. Shower and get dressed, even if you don’t feel like it. Sisters, style your hair and put on your make-up. Brothers, shave or trim your beard. Eat healthy meals, and limit carbs and sweets.
    4. Spend time alone with God, meditating on His Word and praying. The Psalms are an excellent place to spend time meditating.
    5. Look for someone else to bless. Take a meal to someone who is also missing a loved one. Call or text someone you haven’t connected with in a while. Give a lonely child, or adult, a hug. Ask God to show you who He  would like for you to reach out to and bless.
    6. Spend time with others, especially other believers. When we’re depressed, our tendency is to shut ourselves out from other people. While that is ok occasionally, we mustn’t allow that to become our norm. Go to church. Go to family events. Go wherever God leads you.
    7. Seek help. If your feelings become overwhelming, there are people ready and able to help you. Counseling with a Christian counselor can help you work through those feeling. But if you start having thoughts of suicide, call for help immediately. In the USA, you can call or text 988 to get help.

    When the Apostle Paul wrote to the Philippian church to “rejoice, and again I say rejoice” he was sitting in a nasty Roman prison, facing certain execution. Here’s just a few of the things he wrote in the 4th chapter of Philippians:

    V. 4 “Rejoice in the Lord always. Again I will say, rejoice!

    V. 6-7 “Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.

    V.8 “Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy—meditate on these things.”

    God didn’t create us to be down, sad or depressed. Jesus said that He came that we might have LIFE and have it more abundantly. So my prayer for you during this Holiday Season is that regardless of your circumstances, that you will receive the joy of the Lord, and the peace of God to surround you.

    If you don’t know Jesus Christ as your personal Savior, He’s ready to receive you, that is why He came and went to the cross. Pray “Lord Jesus, I acknowledge I am a sinner and need a Savior. I repent of my past sins, and I ask You to come into my heart right now. I believe You died on the cross for my sin, and You were resurrected on the third day. I receive you as my Lord and Savior, and I choose to live for You from this day forward. Amen”  Welcome to the family of God!

    Peace and blessings in our Lord Jesus Christ,

    Dee

  • “…that the Son of God may be glorified”

    In the 11th chapter of the gospel of John, Jesus received word from Mary and Martha that their brother Lazarus was sick. But Jesus stayed two more days before he went to Bethany to see them. (v.6)

    “When Jesus heard that, He said ‘This sickness is not unto death but for the glory of God that the Son of God may be glorified through it.” John 11:4

    Jesus already knew what he was going to do, he would raise Lazarus from the dead. It must have seemed to Mary and Martha that Jesus was being insensitive to their brother being sick. But Jesus had a greater plan from the Father, that He would raise Lazarus from the dead thus bringing glory to the Father.

    Many people watched and many more of us saw on replay President Trump being shot at a rally on Saturday. It is nothing less than miraculous that he turned his head at the last moment and avoided being shot directly into his brain. Since Saturday, questions have arisen about how security could have been so lax. There were people in the audience who saw a man with a gun on top of a building and tried to alert the police. Their pleas went unacknowledged by the police and the Secret Service. There will be ongoing investigations, and hopefully the truth will come out. However if God could cause President Trump to turn his head at just the right moment, do you not think he could have moved security agents to check out reports of a shooter?  

    Could this shooting have been allowed to bring glory to God and cause President Trump and his supporters to see that God is greater and give the glory to Him? Yes, President Trump has said himself that it was God who protected him. Those who believe in God and the Lord Jesus Christ all know that it was God who caused him to turn his head at just the right moment thus saving his life. All glory be to God the Father and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

    At the same time that we praise God for protecting President Trump, we mourn with the families of those who were shot and the man who died protecting his family. Evil doesn’t care who it destroys. The target was always Donald Trump, and the others were just innocent bystanders. Let us pray for the families of the other victims that God will heal their hurts.

    “Rejoice with those who rejoice, and weep with those who weep.” Romans 12:15

    Peace and blessing to you in the Name of our Lord Jesus Christ

    Dee

  • God is Faithful, Always

    “O Lord God of hosts, Who is mighty like You, O Lord?   Your faithfulness also surrounds You.”     Psalm 89:8

     

                To say I feel a little overwhelmed would be a major understatement. But not necessarily for the reasons you may think, considering the events of the past week.

    First, I’m overwhelmed at the Greatness and Goodness of our God. In the words of King David, who am I Lord that you would be so gracious to me? God took what could have been a tragic event and showed us His love and His protection over Larry’s life. When he fell and shattered the T9 vertebra, it shattered on three sides but the fourth side stayed intact, protecting his spine.

    Second thing, the peace. Throughout Larry’s hospital stay, during the surgery and recovery, we both had a sense of peace and we know it was from all the prayers being offered on our behalf. Overwhelming peace.

    And third thing, the love.  Not only the love of God covering us, the love of our brothers and sisters in Christ. Phone calls, text messages, hospital visits and gifts, each one reminds us that it is the overwhelming love of Christ through believers that bind us together so we never walk through difficult times alone.

    Larry and I still face some uncertainties, decisions that we’ll have to make that will affect our future. When the doctor tells a contractor that he can no longer climb ladders or lift heavy objects, that’s not what he wants to hear. But we know our God is faithful and He has our future in His hands. As our pastor said this morning, it’s not about how big our faith is, but it is about how big our God is.

    “I have been young, and now am old; Yet I have not seen the righteous forsaken, nor his descendants begging bread.” Psalm 37:25

     

    Peace and blessings in our Lord Jesus Christ,

    Dee

     

  • A Strong Foundation of Faith

    “For what does the Scripture say? ‘Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness’ …Therefore it is of faith that it might be according to grace, so that the promise might be sure to all the seed, not only to those who are of the law, but also to those who are of the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all.” Romans 4:3, 16 (NKJV)

    Abraham, called the Father of Faith, shows us how to build a foundation of faith. It starts with hearing God. God spoke to Abram (Abraham as he was called later), Abram heard and obeyed.
    “Now the Lord had said to Abram: ‘Get out of your country, from your family and from your father’s house, to a land that I will show you. I will make you a great nation; I will bless you and make your name great; and you shall be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and I will curse him who curses you; And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.’ So Abram departed as the Lord had spoken to him, and Lot went with him. And Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran.” (Genesis 12:1-4)

    God told Abraham to leave the place where he was and go to a place that He would show him. Years before God had lead Abram’s father, Terah, to leave Ur the land of the Chaldees (in modern day Iraq) to go to Canaan, but he only made it as far as Haran (Turkey) and settled there and there he died. God spoke to Abram and he heard and he obeyed.

    The first thing we have to do if we’re to have a strong foundation of faith is to hear God and then obey. How do we hear God? By taking in His written word, by reading and meditating on what is given to us through the Scriptures. Once we have it in our hearts, then we have to be obedient to it. It’s not enough just to read it or hear it preached; we have to apply it by being obedient, doing what we hear God telling us to do.

    “By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to the place which he would receive as an inheritance. And he went out, not knowing where he was going. By faith he dwelt in the land of promise as in a foreign country, dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise.” (Hebrews 11:8, 9)

    If we desire to live a life for God, we have to learn to be obedient to Him and be fully surrendered to His will. It requires faith to be fully surrendered to God. When we doubt, or lack faith in God and His Word, it hard to give up our plans and desires to surrender to His. It requires spending time in the Scriptures to come to the place where we can genuinely say “Not my will, but Yours be done.”
    But when we know the Word, we can also know that God’s plans for our lives are far better than anything we can imagine. He tells us in Jeremiah 29:11-13 “For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon Me and go and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart.”

    Seek Him with you whole heart, through His written word, and you will find Him. Dwell on that Word and your faith in it will grow. Then you will have a strong foundation of faith that can stand against any circumstance that life on this planet gives.
    Peace and blessings in our Lord Jesus Christ,
    Dee
    Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson.

  • God Over the Trivial

    “Behold! God is mighty, and yet despises no one nor regards anything as trivial; He is mighty in power of understanding and heart.” Job 36:5 (The Amplified Bible)

    Have you ever felt that something you were concerned about was too trivial for God to care about? I’ve heard people say things like “Well God is too busy taking care of the big serious things to bother about my little problems.” There was even one woman who said she didn’t pray about her kids because she thought God needed to be busy taking care of the world and she could watch her kids. What!? Yes, God is indeed concerned with what is happening in the world, but He is also concerned with us, even the most trivial mundane things.

    Jesus said “Are not five sparrows sold for two pennies? And [yet] not one of them is forgotten or uncared for in the presence of God. But [even] the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Do not be struck with fear or seized with alarm; you are of greater worth than many [flocks] of sparrows.” Luke 12: 6, 7 (The Amplified Bible)

    Wow, our Father even knows how many hairs are on our heads. (And knows which one are colored or not!) Yes, the Creator God who created us is concerned with anything that concerns us. It is only when we learn to trust Him with the small things that we truly learn to trust Him in the big ones.

    Ryan Kennelly, the first man to bench 800 lbs without controversy, started weight lifting at age 18, and became a serious power lifter five years later. In 2008, Ryan set the bench press record with a lift of 1070 lbs. Do you suppose Ryan started out lifting 800 or more pounds on his first work out? Of course not. That would have caused him serious injury. He started with a set of dumbbells his father gave him when he was 10 years old. It took 5 years of serious training and weight lifting, adding little at a time, before he was ready to compete.

    Developing our faith in God is the same way. If we learn to first pray and believe God for the small things, that increases our faith to believe Him for the big things. Faith is like a muscle – it only grows and gets stronger when it is used. But just like a baby has to learn to walk by developing her leg muscles and develop her balance by contracting her abs, we must use our faith for it to grow and develop.

    As for the woman who said she didn’t pray for her kids, that is an example of the polar opposite of faith – pride. Pride in believing she had the power to protect and take care of her children on her own. The Apostle Peter wrote, “Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time, casting all your care upon Him, for He cares for you.” 1 Peter 5:6, 7 (New King James Bible) My children and grandchildren are better off when I “cast the care” of them on God and not rely on my efforts!

    I have no pride. I know that left to my own choices, even in the mundane or trivial, I’ll mess up every time. I have to rely on God’s direction, I have to hear from Him to know which way to go, how to spend my day. What if I hear wrong? I repent and ask for clarity. And clarity only comes when I spend time with Jesus, talking about everything. Listening for His voice through His written word and through the Holy Spirit speaking to me. About the big things, about the trivial things. Nothing is too great – or too trivial – for my God!

    Peace and blessings in our Lord Jesus Christ,
    Dee